PSO Program: Your Questions, My Answers

Let’s be clear, the Mayor doesn’t have that authority. Only the City Council can decide whether or not to continue the PSO Model.  I believe that the PSO Model needs significant changes and transparency for the future, as well as a frank assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the program.

In the spring, I met with leaders of the Stand Up for Safety and Cedar Valley Safety Alliance groups, to ensure they knew what I was not in favor of nuking the program outright.  At no time have I ever stated or implied that I wanted to end the program entirely. I fully support cross-training police officers to augment traditional firefighters and vice versa -- but I draw the line at replacing traditional firefighters with PSO’s.  We still need a core group of fire professionals, and while proponents argue that significant cost-savings exists, I do not believe that a majority of Cedar Falls residents want a Public Safety Department comprised of ‘jack of all trades’ first responders. 

I’m neither a die-hard advocate nor a firebrand opponent of the PSO Model.  I'm a skeptic who wants the public to have access to the 'why' and 'how' of the PSO program -- and the best way to do that is with a Council-approved Strategic Plan  We owe it to residents to provide a clear path, along with public and published justifications for doing so. I'm a healthy skeptic of the claims of the government -- not because I'm inherently distrustful, because I know there there's almost always more to the story.  I can't promise you an end to the program, but I can promise honesty and an unbiased desire to learn "the rest of the story"....and that includes the PSO Model.

That claim is strains credibility.  I've heard that I've voted something like 14 times on items which continue the model....let's break that down. 

I did vote to approve the city’s budget, which included line items for PSO equipment and positions. Should I have voted against the entire budget? Should I have not voted to fund PSO equipment?  As a former law enforcement officer myself, I would never put politics over the safety and well-being of personnel. 

 I’ve voted in favor of the Certified Lists for new PSO hires not because I agreed that we should be hiring PSO’s, but because the process itself had been carried out in accordance with Civil Service requirements. Those certified list approvals are not the appropriate time to make political points. If the assumption is that voting to approve the PSO Certified List is an endorsement of the program, then in the future I will vote against them.  Every. Time. Until a council-approved strategic plan for public safety is in place.

I was the lone vote against putting police supervisors into supervisory positions in the fire division, without so much as a transitional learning period.    I also voted against eliminating firefighter positions, until the city stopped putting those resolutions on the council agenda last year.  

In the City Council’s annual Goal Setting sessions (occurring each fall), I have not assented to continue the goal of “Aggressively expand the PSO model” because this phrase is so broad as to be meaningless.  I believe it goes against the principles of good governance to extend to city staff such an expansive mandate, and I’m not willing to go along with that.

And of course, I forwarded the Public Safety Strategic Plan referral for a council vote last year, to assert City Council (and therefore public) ownership of the process.   

No, I am not. As is required by law, I stay out of collective bargaining issues.   And I have not sought or obtained endorsement from any union, as I believe it wouldn't be appropriate. That said, when campaigning for City Council two years ago, I had several insightful meetings with then-president James Cook where he expressed firefighter concerns about the PSO Model, unrelated to collective bargaining topics.  With those meetings as a start, I then spent several months last year developing a list of concerns that firefighters (and others) have expressed.  I look forward to working with stakeholders to develop solutions to these concerns, as Mayor.

No, that's absolutely untrue.  We can't wait five years to make changes -- and I don't intend to do.  I do intend to determine, in 2020, what Cedar Falls residents expect from their Public Safety Department, and at what price.  A task force made up of experts and citizens should identify current Public Safety internal strengths and weaknesses, external opportunities and threats, and then create goals and actions to address them.  And then that plan should be approved by City Council as representatives of the people.  Think that’s too hard to do? Here’s a sampling of fifty strategic plans that Public Safety Departments across the country have developed to guide their path to improvement.  It’s not rocket science -- just hard work, and a willingness to ask -- and answer -- hard questions.

Change is exactly why you create a strategic plan. If a five-year plan had been created in 2015 (with public comment and council approval), I'm certain that the city wouldn’t be experiencing the level of controversy and lack of trust that we’re grappling with today with the PSO Model. I believe the pain point isn’t “change in itself”, but in uncertainty and lack of a roadmap for the future.   A strategic plan faithfully implemented would provide that roadmap.

It's hard to hear about your shortcomings and need for improvement, but it's worse to not know, and do nothing about those shortcomings.  I for one am much more skeptical when I only hear the positives on any topic. Give me the full story. 

I know there are problems with the PSO model....any new initiative as complex as the PSO Model is likely to generate unintended consequences, unforeseen gaps, and missed opportunities.  Nothing in life is perfect. But in our council meetings, and goal-setting session, we're only being presented with rosy projections and glowing highlights. Presentations like the recent “Report to the Mayor on the PSO Model” appear very one-sided, making all the information suspect in my mind.  Residents have expressed their similar frustrations with me.  Don't relentlessly "sell us" on the PSO Model -- instead, lay the facts out to us straight, and we'll have more confidence and trust in the process and in the quality of decisions made.

 As Mayor, I’ll work to foster a culture of openness on what’s happening in Public Safety...successes and shortcomings alike.  To develop a true learning organization takes courage and dedication, but we can do it. We have to do it. It's the only way we can improve.

Thanks for reading all the way through, and for keeping an open mind. I’ll see you in the neighborhood.